Forum:2007-05-18. Complete At Last(Thank You), by Greenorbs2
Greenorbs2, 5/18/2007 1:24 AM :I just wanted to send a heartfelt thanks to all the readers here in AR who aren't necessarily members of fanfiction.net. It's been a great pleasure writing "Blue Oceans", but sadly, it's finally come to an end. My greatest appreciation to everyone who took a chance on this fanfic. Thank you, the reader. Some of you, from what I've read, had a few problems with the epilogue. It was purposely written to boggle the reader's mind. As for the verse, the context is not meant to be taken at face value, but at a much higher level. The reader might not agree with Helga's opinion, but her statement should at least provoke some thought. I don't want to overanalyze my own fic, so should any questions arise, feel free to ask. Once again, thank YOU! Handing that salute right back at ya! -Jae- ---- Hurricos, 6/7/2007 8:58 PM :Sorry for the late post but GONGRATS JAE! w00t let's break out the party poppers and champagne! I'm so uber happy that you've managed to finish your story beacause it gives me hope that maybe I'll someday be able to finish my own stories. I understand that it took you over 3 years to complete your fic. Don't you just hate when your on a roll and you think you're making good progress with your fic. all of a sudden, the inspiration pool dries up leaving you frustrated with a blank mind? I salute you for sticking to your fic to the end Jae! *salutes* I also give you this medal for Fanfic Completion and Dedication! *hands over medal* Hurricos.EXE logging out! ---- Greenorbs2, 6/9/2007 3:26 AM :My apologies for neglecting this thread. As for the answers to the epilogue. Here are a few clues. 1) Gerald has only one child, a girl. 2) The boy is John's.(If you've read the fic, you'll know who he is) 3) I chose the gesture of a military salute because it's so uncharacteristic of the two females adressing Helga. 4) No, I'm not giving away who Gerald's wife is. That's something the reader can decipher. 5) If you didn't care for the epilogue, pretend you never read it and stick with the end. "I was going sailing with my wife." Yes, the fic did take me almost three years to write, but I have a life outside of HA! I married, had a couple kids, went through a major crisis...etc. Thanks for the congrats, Hurricos. Since I felt the mention of the post AFD fanfic didn't fit the Johannsen Trilogy thread, I'm elaborating here. Ruth: My apologies, but this is the "Out of Tune" fic that's currently in progress. I guess I should have been more specific. Stephen: Yes, it's post AFD and yes, the kids are in fourth grade. No, it's not intended to be a "Blue Oceans" epic, but a story consisting of around ten chapters. I'm keeping it simple this time. Thanks for your interest. -Jae- ---- Ruth, 6/9/2007 3:50 PM :Oh, OK! Did I review that yet? I can't remember. I fell ill yesterday and was confined to my bed. I know I read it. It's a really good start, and everyone is in character (which is hard to come by on FFN, haha), considering it's the first time you've written them as 9-year-olds? Reads just like an episode would. Oh, hell. I didn't realize we could broadcast our fics here. I'm kind of afraid to mention mine since it's adult themes and all that. Not everyone's cup of tea. You mention the amount of time it took you to finish Blue Oceans...did a reviewer called "Hellerick" leave you a message about this? I sure got one for SWOE, and they told me they'd see me in 2012. That's why I left the author's note about having a life and an illness outside of the internet. Seriously, don't they realize how long it takes some authors to finish their books? Would they rather that we hurry through our stories and make them sound like some of those really bad "hi skool" fics on FFN (the ones that get all of the "OMG SO COOL!" reviews, you know what I'm talking about), or would they rather we take our time to make sure that we're writing to the best of our abilities? ---- Greenorbs2, 6/10/2007 2:20 AM :Ruth: Yes, you did review it. Thank you. I've completed the next chapter, but I have to type it out and submit it. I don't usually promote my fics here. Sometimes other folks mention it, or I let readers who are members of this site but not FFN know when it's been updated. I really don't like to do that. Er...yeah...I've gotten a few "interesting" reviews from him. I'll let you know about those elsewhere. Some good, some not so good. However I appreciate reviews like that since they help me write to the best of my abilities. Authors take many years to write a new book, and then some after their publisher picks it apart. -Jae- ---- Ruth, 6/10/2007 4:52 PM :Ah, the only reason I asked if you had received a review from that person is that they seem to be some sort of troll that goes around praising bad fanfiction and criticizing good fanfiction. Take anything they say with a grain of salt. Normally, they might have a point with their criticism, but it's hard to take someone seriously who thinks that some of the most notorious crap fics on FFN are on par with Shakespeare, himself, if you know what I mean. I feel badly for Blonde Cecile. He seems to have no concept of what a short story, ficlet, or drabble are, and he keeps shaming her for "showing her readers that she can write, and then writing short crap like she does". ---- Bellethetrickster, 6/11/2007 2:27 AM :Unfortunately, there do seem to be a few reviewers who review only to see themselves... well, review. At some point, writing the review becomes more important than encouraging an author or helping them improve. I don't think it's right. Some folks just need to realize that just because you pick apart something, it doesn't necessarily make you a genius. And without common sense or tact, most criticism won't be taken seriously anyway. It always bugs me whenever review space is used as a platform for some reviewer with too much hot air up his/her sphincter. The review should be about the story, and only the story. ---- Greenorbs2, 6/11/2007 6:06 PM :It depends on who you're writing for. If you're writing professionally, yeah, the editor needs to let you in on the technical errors you've made, but that's not the most important aspect of the work. An editor will see how well you keep to your plot etc. You're right: Content always rules over technicalities. As for that reviewer, I don't sweat him or any other for that matter. Seems they prefer "canon" fics. There's no need for anyone else too either. I might "listen" but that doesn't mean I'm going to "obey". LOL Sorry...just had to say that. No reviewer should ever berate a fanfic author. That's totally demeaning and unecessary. Maybe those types of reviewers should take a look and their own works. Yeah, I admit I make a ton of techinical errors, but I don't have all hours of the day to sit down and edit. I have two small children and a life outside HA! -Jae- ---- marcosbnpinto, 6/11/2007 7:35 PM :Bah. Dumbstruck dorks posing as either self-entitled "critics" or "purists"( please doen´t get me wrong, I really appreciate a well-done canon fiction too, though I don´t appreciate poeple who think that anyone can´t diverge or explore )exist everywhere, and their so-called "life" is made of that; curiously, their only so-called "talent" reside on their remarkable ability of posting snarky remarks, or doing "smart" trolling - two things that give them a rahter exact dimension of their creativity, thus intelligence( if they had any ) ---- SeraphimKiss, 6/12/2007 1:46 AM :I've read a few of that person's reviews and they annoyed the heck outta me. But the strangest one, I'd have to say, is one where he/she points out that "your" and "you're" are used incorrectly in the fic... And then claims that he/she can't speak a word of English. If they can't speak English, why are they criticizing other people's English? And how the heck are they reading fics that are written in English? Unless they literally mean that they can't speak English, but can read it. But I'm glad, in a way, that some people are critical, because that means that I don't have to be. :) I'd rather tell people what's good about a fic so they'll continue to do it, and leave the criticizing to other people. ---- Ruth, 6/12/2007 12:27 PM :Supposedly, they are Russian and learned all of their English skills from TV. It's possible, I guess, but it still seems like they're telling a fib. ---- mxnhpfreak, 6/12/2007 4:28 PM :*enters the room blushing and walking very shyly* I might get snapped at, laughed at or something else equally bad, but I think I'll have to stand up for my friend... *takes a deep breath* I know Hellerick and though I agree he can be very harsh at times or in words of another friend of mine "blunt and truthful", he is a good person. SeraphimKiss, you're right: it means that he does not speak English. But he can write and read it. Did any of you know that he never had English classes? He learned on his own by reading a lot of things over the internet. And surprisingly enough, he also knows a bit of Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian and a lot of other languages I can't remember right now. When he bashes someone's story, I don't think he means to hurt the author or make them uncomfortable/sad/annoyed. As for "praising bad fanfiction and criticizing good fanfiction", I believe that everyone is entitled by their opinion. Regardless of the fact that he might be rude or annoying (not in my opinion, though... I think he's just not subtle enough at times), he has the right to like or dislike stories because of his own reasons. He's a very smart guy, even if you don't see it. However, I do think he's a bit of a flamer... perhaps too often, but... that's just the way he is, as a reviewer. It doesn't mean he's a bad person. He's not my best friend, but I like him and I thought I should stand up for him because he has helped me... he's my beta-reader for An Arnold Thing To Do and he's been very nice to me. *takes another deep breath* There. I said it... As for another reviewers, I agree there are some flamers whose only purpose is to make the author feel like their work is crap. As Ruth said: "take anything they say with a grain of salt." Whatever you read on a review by whoever person wrote it, if you don't like the comment, ignore it. Never take it personally. That's it. ---- Ruth, 6/12/2007 5:07 PM :Well, it's nice to know a little more to the story. As for "praising bad fanfiction and criticizing good fanfiction", I believe that everyone is entitled by their opinion. Regardless of the fact that he might be rude or annoying (not in my opinion, though... I think he's just not subtle enough at times), he has the right to like or dislike stories because of his own reasons. Yes, he does have that right. Look, I only call it how I saw it. I've noticed the same pattern from him on reviews. Really, I tend to ignore him or shake my head. He just happened to give Jae a similar review that he gave me, and discussion happened from there. And that's enough out of me. This went from a "congrats Jae!" thread to "wtf is this review/reviewer?" thread, and that's not what this thread is about, so I'll shut up now. ---- Deep-Voice06, 6/12/2007 5:48 PM : So, is this where all the talk is lately, huh? I've only responded to a few posts here, but I am officially speechless at everything that was being said about Hellerick. I have plenty to say, although, I have no clue how to start my conversation, I have to at least try. . . (And I apologize ahead of time, particularly to Steve, for continuing to be off topic, but I have to admit. I gotta get in on this...lol) I'm an author on FFN, I'm sure some of you know that by now...lol! Even though Hellerick can be somewhat harsh in his replies to me, I kind of respect him for that. "Kind of"...I don't like it sometimes, but I respect him. He can be very helpful to the writer. This is because, even though Hellerick is harsh in his words, he gives an honest view of his thoughts of the story. When I receive a review from him, I know I'm not receiving "BS". All of his responses, except for his first review in my "Cafeteria Confessions", are very accurate. He knows what he's talking about, though I dislike greatly how nasty he can sound to the writer sometimes... Don't get me wrong, I'm trying to stay neutral about this. Like Claudia said in her post before me; "Everyone's entitled by their own opinion" (and yeah Ruth, I just read the post you sneaked in when I was typing this...lol!) I hate to admit it sometimes, but I'm horrible at writing. I have a habit of putting in messed up pronouns and subordinate conjunctions. Whether I try my best, I'll always make mistakes. Goodness, no one's perfect! I only can try my best, do what I can, and make the plot stand out. And you're absolutely right Ruth, I, as well, do not have all hours of the day to proof-read and edit chapter material. I work and have semesters at college that I continuisly study for! It is nice though, to have somebody to do my critiquing for me. This is both for my reviews sakes (so they don't have to constantly tell me what's wrong with my story) and for mine. Hellerick can say the craziest things to people, and he can be inaccurate at times. After all, he's only giving his personal opinion to a story, so his views may be bias at times. He does care about the writer though, or else he wouldn't review and try to help them out at all. ---- Greenorbs2, 6/12/2007 5:50 PM :Hey, folks. I've never condemned Hellerick ever for his harsh reviews. In fact, I appreciate them. He's obviously an intelligent person and I received a recent review with the mention I had "numerous typos" which is a normal thing for me. He loved the first half of my "Blue Oceans" and detested the latter portion it. So...each to his own, yes. mxnpfreak: Yes, he knows how to read English, but does he know the difference between the words compliment and complement? Yes they are different words. I only know that because I have a BA in English. Most of my classes consisted of analyzing classic, American, British, World, Contemporary, and even some Native American literature. I didn't major in technical or creative writing. Okay, that's enough out of me! Like I said, I appreciate everyone's reviews whether they're harsh or not. Hellerick is only trying to help or express his opinions on fanfic. Now I'll just say this to end this crazy ranting! THANK YOU! I appreciate everyone who's taken the time to read "Blue Oceans" whether they liked it or not! -Jae- ---- mxnhpfreak, 6/12/2007 6:01 PM :DV, thanks a lot. You kinda helped me, and yet you sounded neutral... Ruth, you're absolutely right. Jae, I apologize for it, but I had to stand up for Hellerick. And I hope y'all guys understand it; its in my nature to jump whenever someone I care for (in one way or another) is in trouble/attacked/criticized/etc. I didn't mean to say you're wrong or blatantly disagree with you. I'm in no way against you. I barely know you, but I can tell you're all nice people and I'd love to get to know you a bit better... so I do hope you understand I was just trying to defend Mr. Ferlibay. And that's it from me about this. As for Jae's BO, I haven't had the pleasure to read it but I do want to (as soon as I get a bit of free time). I took a look at the first chapter and it does sound like a very interesting fic. Congrats on finishing it. That's always a great achievement for any author. =)